Is "From the River to the Sea" So Wrong?
It is often charged that the slogan "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free" is a genocidal slogan, but didn't Martin Luther King Jr. once say in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech "Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."? In fact, MLK went further and said "let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. ... From every mountainside, let freedom ring." Yet, would you ever say that "I Have a Dream" was full of genocidal intent? Was MLK delivering hate speech? Was MLK calling for the genocide of white Americans from sea to shining sea? Well, MLK delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 whereas the Palestinian slogan of "from the river to the sea" came from the mid-1960s. In other words, the speech and the slogan come from the exact same era! So we need to apply the same standards to both. The only difference is that whereas MLK's movement succeeded over six decades ago, the Palestinians are still fighting for their movement six decades later. I think "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free" is a beautiful and inspiring slogan which deserves support all over the globe. Imagine if the Civil Rights Movement was still going on and the KKK still controlled the US government and segregation was still a thing. That's what the Palestinian slogan is fighting against.
One person's freedom fighter is other man's terrorist. The one with power and money ends up as freedom fighter in history books.
Came here to say this. If half of congress had Palestinian citizenship, we'd be having a different story
Oh C1, its getting there fast. And America will become history!
The phrase symbolizes establishing a Palestinian state over all of Israel’s borders, from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea. Doing so would erase the state of Israel and its people . It’s genocidal you twat
Are you really comparing MLK and the civil rights movement to whatever religious nonsense is going on in the Middle East today and for the past thousand years?
Ok. So let’s take your angle. Ask any black American in the 1960s if they thought that it meant genocide against whites in the USA . Next, ask as a black American now. Both would say absolutely not! Next, ask a Palastinian in the 1960s and one now (say in Gaza Strip but right before October massacre) does this mean killing Jews in the area now known as Israel. The answer is absolutely yes! That’s the difference. The one chant is to bring equality to an under represented group and the other is to wipe a people group off the face of the earth. Thanks for playing. Your argument failed miserably though.
You're so wrong! There are interviews with Palestinians online on what they want with Israel. Many civilians are practical and realistic. Many of them know that Israel is not going anywhere and all they want is peace and coexistence. Like this Palestinan man in West Bank is speaking with a lot more maturity than you https://youtu.be/dZWngkjrFxw?feature=shared
He’s probably another one of those lying zionists
Not the same, there's additional context. The difference is that there are people calling for the genocide of Israelis, and the interpretation of the song is the removal of Israelis from that land, which qualifies as genocide. As you said MLK never called for the genocide of white people Israel destroying Gaza is obviously wrong/horrifying though.
You do realize that the slogan was initially used by the zionists right? Have anyone read the Israeli constitution? Oh wait, Israel is the only democracy with no constitution, yes, they do not have a constitution. Ok, back to the slogan, go read the first point on thier ruling party's charter, oh it says from the river to the sea. What a coincidence
You sir have said the most true thing in this whole thread. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/original-party-platform-of-the-likud-party It says "between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty." Somebody is jealous the Palestinians say it better.
The Muslim nations or any other group for that matter, will never one up the Jewish nation. Why? Because God says so. Fight and cry as much as you want. Not gonna happen. I am not a Jew.
I’m neither Jewish nor Muslim, and I don’t have a dog in this fight. My neutral interpretation of “from the river to the sea” is that they’re actually saying “kill the Jews.” That’s what it sounds like to me.
No they’re not. It sounds to me that you need to get educated, with all due respect. It’s amazing that we live in a time where anyone thinks they’re entitled to an opinion on a matter they know nothing about
That's the problem: if you change the meaning of words and sentences to anything you like then you are just lying.
It's just a catchy slogan, and Zionists want to attack the pro Palestine movement by attacking the slogan and hide their actual genocide of Palestinian civilians. The actual slogan is up to interpretation like all slogans are. If you're going to have "river to the sea, Palestinians will be free from Israel's human rights violations and have self determination", that won't be a catchy slogan would it. Even if you interpret it literally, it talks about the erasure of the state of Israel and not Jewish people. Nobody said that Jewish people won't be welcome in the state of Palestine. They came to Palestine and settled in Israel. Anyway, the slogan is not the hill that I'm willing to die on. Some people find the slogan offensive so I don't use it. The main point still remains, Israel needs to treat Palestinians with dignity.
Palestinians and other terrorist groups need to stop their terrorism first.
From the heaven to the Earth, I am invincible under the sun
No it’s not genocidal. People who say so are either being deceptive and evil to deflect and minimize the suffering and plight of the Palestinians, or they’re ignorant because they measure against destructive western imperialism